The real estate mogul's primary investment
vehicle has been battling to keep $752,000 it received from
Northern Crest, and today was granted leave to for the
Supreme Court to hear at least a portion of the case.

Justices Susan Glazebrook, Mark O'Regan and Ellen France
agreed to hear one aspect of the dispute relating to about
$263,000 of payments. The question is whether the payments
were a loan or a redirection of licence fees.

"If the
payments were a loan, it appears that the assets available
to creditors of Northern Crest were not diminished and the
general body of creditors were not disadvantaged, but that
would not appear to be the case if the payments were a
redirection of licence fees payable to Northern Crest," the
judges said.

In September, the Court of Appeal upheld a
High Court ruling that the liquidator of Northern Crest
could claw back the 2010 payments because they were made
when the former Blue Chip entity was insolvent.

The
litigation had its origins in the years leading up to
Northern Crest's 2011 liquidation when two related parties
covered unpaid rents after Robt Jones Holdings stepped up
demands when the firm fell behind its rental payments on a
lease in Auckland's Queen Street.

Northern Crest had been
part of the Blue Chip group and licensed property investment
services. It relocated to Australia, where it was listed on
the ASX, after making its last payment to Robt Jones
Holdings.

However, liquidators were appointed in 2011 when
a former Blue Chip employee's claim on the business was
upheld, with associate judge Tony Christiansen deeming the
firm was insolvent and that there were "significant reasons
to expedite liquidation".

The Blue Chip group of companies
failed in 2008 owing $84 million to more than 2,000
investors. It became a pin-up for regulatory failures of the
time after the Securities Commission said property
investment schemes fell outside the law requiring an offer
document.

The Supreme Court later rejected that view and
ruled the investment scheme marketing between 2005 and 2007
required a prospectus. However, the Financial Markets
Authority decided it wasn't in the public interest to go
further than reviewing the case as Blue Chip-funded
developers had reached a settlement with
investors.

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